The Ever-Changing Fraud Landscape, Part 1

The Value of Network Authentication for MNOs

Fraud & Cybercrime is the third largest global economy after the US and China. This is mind-blowing!

As we are all painfully aware, the fraud landscape is constantly evolving with increasing sophistication from criminals. This presents ongoing challenges for enterprises to protect their businesses and their customers from nefarious actors. On the flip side, it also opens the door to an opportunity for Mobile Network Operators to help. 

Global Shift

Global SMS revenues are declining, and SMS OTP volumes continue to drop year-over-year, being cannibalized by over-the-top providers (like WhatsApp), authenticator apps, and even email (shudder!). At the same time, fraud continues to rise, and enterprises are looking for more secure authentication methods that address increasingly sophisticated fraud without negatively impacting the customer experience. 

Meanwhile, a shift towards digital identity represents a significant business opportunity for MNOs to re-establish themselves as players within the digital ecosystem.

Where to Start

MNOs are uniquely positioned to provide better fraud prevention alternatives to enterprises, while adding a new revenue stream, but often lack the time, money, people, or market knowledge to deliver a robust network authorization solution.

Additionally, MNOs are unsure where to start with Network APIs. First, let’s define them.

Network APIs allow applications to send requests to network services via predefined endpoints within the network infrastructure to retrieve or manage the requested data, offering seamless integration between different services and applications.

There are only two types of Network APIs.  NaaS APIs used for enhanced communication services like edge computing, network slicing and Network Authentication APIs used for fraud prevention. 

Network Authentication is a Carrier service that passes network signals to Enterprise applications so they can assess whether a user still has control over their device. These unique and differentiated network signals include Silent Authentication, SIM Swap, Roaming, Port-Out, Device Status, and Account Status indicators. Enterprises that receive these real-time values then independently assess the risk of letting a user into a digital account. Major US Banks have been using Network Authentication services for years at scale to thwart mobile fraud.

The Time is Now for Network Authentication APIs

Market studies show that the value of network APIs will reach US$34 billion by 2030, with nearly half being attributed to Subscriber Identity (Network Auth) APIs.

In the short term, network authentication APIs capture 97% of the current $12B+ API market opportunity.

The market exists today for Network Auth APIs, while other API markets are still under construction. NaaS APIs (like QoD) are in the nascent stages of commercial availability and market adoption. 

Of course, there is value in NaaS APIs, but the time is now for Network Authentication. 

Are you unsure how to get started?  We’d be happy to help. Fill out our contact form, email info@shush.pw, or message us on LinkedIn.